Jimi Hendrix sex tape found?

Vivid Entertainment plans to release what it claims is a sex tape supposedly featuring Jimi Hendrix.

The film shows a naked man who resembles the legendary guitarist wearing a bandana having sex with two brunettes in a dimly-lit bedroom.

His full face appears on screen for only a few seconds, with his eyes closed. In other portions there are flashes of his profile. However his hands, bedecked with rings, roam large on the screen at times. The film has no audio, reports The New York Times.

Vivid Entertainment, a large maker of pornographic movies, has created a 45-minute DVD, called ‘Jimi Hendrix – The Sex Tape’ that combines 11 minutes of sex footage with a retrospective of Hendrix‘s career in the 1960s.

The company, which has also released tapes of Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee having sex back in the 90s, will sell it for $39.95 in stores and over the internet, and will also offer the film for downloading.

However the identity of the man in the film, which has circulated among Hendrix fans for years, has been disputed by experts and former associates.

Vivid Entertainment claims that after an extensive inquiry led by private detective agencies, it stands by the Hendrix film as the real thing.

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Steven Hirsch, Vivid‘s co-chairman, said: “I believe that we did our due diligence, and as a result of that clearly believe that it’s him.

“If they said that it wasn’t him, I would never have put it out.”

Hirsch said he became convinced that the tape was authentic after tracking down the man who shot it. They reached a monetary agreement “for his approval for us to distribute this”.

However Hirsch declined to say how the man was located or to put a reporter in touch with him, saying they were bound by a confidentiality agreement signed at the man’s insistence. Hirsch added that no one was able to identify the women in the film .

According to the distributor Howie Klein, the footage surfaced when a collector discovered a tin labeled ‘Black Man’ in a box of rock memorabilia bought at an unidentified auction in London.

Allegedly recognizing Hendrix , Klein said, the collector decided to sell the tape. It was offered on eBay, apparently unsuccessfully, more than a year ago, although it is not clear if the same collector was involved.

The DVD includes commentary from two women who met Hendrix and say they believe the tape is real: Pamela Des Barres , the author of ‘I’m With the Band: Confessions of a Groupie’ ,and Cynthia Albritton, better known as Cynthia Plaster Caster.

Albritton is known for doing plaster casts of the genitals of rock stars, including Hendrix in 1968.

Albritton said: “I’m 100 percent sure it’s him. The facial bone structure is the same. The eyebrows and the mustache are true to the style he was wearing in 1970.”

However Kathy Etchingham one of Hendrix’s steady girlfriends during the 1960s said: “It is not him. His face is too broad and nose and nostrils too wide for Jimi. Also the hair is too low on the forehead.”

“He would never have allowed anyone to see that. In private he was very shy and would cover up.”

The film has also been dismissed by Charles R Cross , the author of the Hendrix biography ‘Room Full of Mirrors’ he said: “It doesn’t add up to Jimi“.

As a fan, he said, he felt the film was “horrible to watch,” as he thinks the man appears to be on drugs or heavily intoxicated.

“I don’t want that to be what I think about when I think about Jimi Hendrix,” he said.